Transcripts For CNNW Inside Politics 20170718

Falling out between President Trump and the new Jersey Governor Chris Christie . A new book about campaign 2016 says, yes, and theres a thanks, obama twist to that. We begin with the collapse of the Obamacare Repeal effort and what it means for the Republican Party and the republican president who promised if given power to make giant Health Care Changes a top priority. Six months in, the fingerpointing in full force and path forward for health care, and other gop agenda items like tax reform is unclear. The senates got to pass a bill to move the process forward. We hope they achieve that. Unaware if obamacare will stand at the people will get hurt in the process. The senate should voe to repeal now and replace later, or return to the legislation carefully crafted in the house and senate, but either way, inaction is not an option. Congress needs to step up. Congress needs to do their job and Congress Needs to do their job now. Busy day. Here with us to share reporting, jackie kucinich, cnn m. J. Lee. And senators meet for lunch and today a defining moment for the Republican Party. President trump blaming congress for the mess and sending contradictory messages of, about what he would like next. Many republicans in congress say, no, the president and his team share the blame for sending mixed messages and for not using the power of the bully pulpit to move the debate in the right direction. There are giant questions now about other big ticket agenda items and about the 2018 political impact of what would be a gop Epic Health Care failure. Cnns Phil Mattingly is tracking those questions and others as republicans gather for lunch and, phil, the big question in the lunch is what next . Reporter look, senator mcconnell made clear about 14 hours ago in a very latenight statement after two more senators came out opposing the senate draft plan he was going to try for a repealonly effort. That means, the last Congress Republicans while the democratic president was in office voted to repeal large portions of the Affordable Care act via reckon sailiation through the budget rules, same process as now. And conservatives asked for that, the president has as well and didnt believe they had support to do that and wanted to repeal and replace. They dont have the votes for that, senator mcconnell says. Theyll try for repeal only. The issue they might not just have the votes for repeal only, they might not have the votes to take up the bill. Im walk you where things currently are. You appreciate this john, but to be able to vote on legislative text you need to vote to proceed to that text. A procedural vote but a very important one in situations like this. In senator mcconnell cannot get 50 votes they cant even take up the Health Care Bill let alow vote on the appeal to be an amendment. How it stands. Senator Susan Collins already a firm no on the motion to proceed to move on to that Health Care Bill. Senator Shelley Moore captainit yes, but with conditions. Polar opposite of one another. Senator capito, a clear replacement. Senator lee, make sure repeal only is the only option end of the effort. Problem there, following the repealonly vote, if they got to that point, a votorama. Any number of amemdsments coof damaging, i note. To give advantages to senator capito or lee is tough and in question at the moment. On top of that, john, before wed even gone into this lunch, where senator mcconnell talks about the plan, raising concerns about what repealonly would mean. The idea of moving forward on a repeal only with a twoyear transition period and no clear way or pathway to replace makes a lot of senators very uneasy. The cbo scored this proposal earlier this year, its not good numbers by any stretch of the imagination. So basically where we stand right now, kind of the microlevel, on the Health Care Bill is, they might not even get to the opportunity to vote on repealonly. Well see. You noted that lunch is very big coming up. Well have to see as of now things arent looking good for plan 3. 0, i would say. 3. 0, 4. 0. See where this goes. Phil mattingly, thanks. Grab any senators coming out or going in, grab them. Get you back on tv and see how it goes going forward. Back to the Health Care Conversation in a minute. Cnn identified the eighth person on hand noor meeting in 2016. Donald trump jr. Had a meeting with a russian lawyer, told he would bring dirt on Hillary Clinton. Our justice correspondent joins us with new details. Reporter learning more about the mystery eighth person you point out, john, attended the june 2016 meeting with donald trump jr. At trump tower. He is a Senior Vice President at the Company Founded by the Russian Oligarch who initiated this, this meeting, rather, cnn learned his name is ike kavalodsay. He is a Senior Vice President of a group, the real estate drept compan department run by the ashedagete studied at the Moscow Academy of finance and a degree at the university of connecticut. He worked for thinge ing agalar Organization Pulling off the Miss Universe pageant in moscow. Special investigators are seeking information. His attorney told us. Weve also learned he is a longtime u. S. Citizen according to his attorney and when i asked him why he was at that meeting at trump tower last june he said initially he thought he would be the translator for the russian attorney. So that is why he went. Because he speaks fluent russian, but when he got there he realized that the russian attorney had brought her own translator. So there have been a lot of questions surrounding this mystery eighth person. Cnn has learned the name, ike kavalodsay his attorney confirmed that when we we want to him with that name. Back to you. Significant. We have the name cooperating as well with the special investigation. Pam brown with breaking news. Thanks. Return to the russia story in a minute. Back to the Health Care Debate and what we just heard from Phil Mattingly. Republican senators going into this room for a debate about what next. Yes, a debate about should we just repeal and then consider replace . But also a debate about the future of the Republican Party and its aint s ability to gov. Not President Trump, new to the scene. Congressional republicans campaigned in four republican election cycles well do this. President trump, candidate trump, took it on. During the Campaign Said it would be easy. Now what . Yeah. I think that its a really telling sign that Mitch Mcconnell has chosen to go down the route that they almost pursued earlier this year. The repeal and delay tactic. Right . But Republican Leaders decided that that was not something that there was appetite for within the republican conference. But which to me sfal signals mcconnell wants a sense of finality. There hasnt been a vote in the senate. Even if he decides, look, votes arent there, but this is going to be what shows to the world that republicans took a vote and if it fails then thats where things stand. Its clear mcconnell wants to take some sort of action even if its looking really hard now he may even have 50 votes on the motion to proceed. To that point, before you jump in, i want people to hear from senator mcconnell. Interesting. Senator mcconnell decided early on do it as one package. Just repeal, no guarantee conservatives will be there when they have to replace. Task tough votes. And conservatives off the rails, moderates there when you get to replace. Mcconnell is miffed. Using a polite word at the white house. He believes helped conservatives get to a point, do it in two pieces. Heres the majority leader this morning. In the coming days the senate will take up and vote on a repeal of obamacare combined with a stable twoyear transition period as we work towards patientcentered health care. A majority of the senate voted to pass the same repeal legislation back in 2015. President obama vetoed it then. President trump, President Trump will sign it now. He says that, you know, hes not very emotive guy, but a nod of the head understands the politics. 5248 trying to defend that. Vulnerable members are afraid to vote for repeal, they promised to do. But not a replace theyre on the ballot in 2018 having taken away health care from people without giving alternative replacement. A striking moment for Mitch Mcconnell. Weve could beered him, kofb arare covered the hill. Normally massive with a grand strategy and plan. In this case, he seems to be drifting between different strategies and in this case, normally protecting his members and in this case hes not. Hes forcing them to take a very dicey vote on just a straight repeal, and you are already seeing blowback from people like Susan Collins. And also seeing members that, a lot of these members have never been in charge before. Never had a president who is a republican who actually will sign wa they voted for. For, off the record, or on background, but some members took that 2015 vote knowing full well it was a symbolic vote. Saying what they wanted to do. Now theyve caught the car, and governing is very different. You have a lot of legislators. We might know and been around for a while but never in charge and were seeing what happens. Voting to repeal, great, when you new a democratic president would veto the bill. Send it down, tell them i voted to repeal and knew it wasnt going to happen. Knew you would not be responsible, how do you replace or deal with medicaid . Deal with preexisting conditions . One of the frustrations, i know mcconnell shares and wont say it publicly. They dont think the president led the party on this. Tweeting republicans should do, as opposed to we should do and thinks that the president sent mixed signals including the last 24 hours or so. Saying they should repeal and work from a new plan from a new slate. Thats one tweet. Then were all let down by democrats and a few republicans. Most republicans were loyal. Terrific worked hard. As ive said, let obamacare fair and then come together to pass a great plan. Which is it, mr. President . What do you want . Well, and, look, theres so many things that are, that have been dysfunctional in washington, but one of the central pieces is this relationship to the extent it exists between the congress and the white house. And you know, typically theres always problems. Always tensions but typically the hill looks the party on the hill who has the president looks to the white house, looks to the president for both internal strategery and also for a kind of public bully pulpit, and theres more bully than pulpit in what President Trump does, and he hasnt been out there. We all covered president obama multiple road trips, months and months, town hall meetings. One time he was asked a Health Care Question as a town hall meeting and the answer was 17 minutes long without stopping. You know . I mean this was a guy steeped in it. It didnt work and there were a lot of times problematic, but that kind of sort of persistent leadership is something we havent seen from the white house, not only has he not been out there, President Trump, he has been sending mixed signals, as you pointed out even within the last 24 hours or so. Its not clear what President Trump wants. Does he want repeal and replace later . Or obamacare to collapse . His statements are so inconsistent. Talk to republican senators and aides, they say, look, this is much easier for us, and hard enough already if President Trump stays out of it. Not just on him. Not just on the president. He is the leader of the party. Sometimes reluctant says republicans doesnt include himself. Just on him, they tehrran on th majority promising to do this. The buck is shared. The white house saying annoyed, caught off guard. Final two senator made clear this would collapse, mike lee and jerry moran of utah and kansas didnt give the white house a heads up. Paying attention as all, we didnt know which senators. This was going to happen. Clear it would happen. The question, when. More people come out publicly and collapse. At dinner with seven yes votes. If youre the president of the United States and trying to win votes for the legislation, great. Bring in the leadership, some of the key players. Why after one or two of the wavering people for the president to sway them . Who is directing the white house political strategy . The other part to michaels point about him rallying. He does like these rallies, but we have not seen him at rallies to motivate people on health care. To use his own dichotomy, not rallying in pittsburgh. He was in paris. He was doing things abroad and focusing on bastille day and not pushing things to the finish line on health care, which i think is a frustration for a lot of republicans. Look, were in what the white house has dubbed buy america week. Right . Last week infrastructure week and energy week. Where was Health Care Week . I mean, if this was the sort of if we were in a period we were leading up to a kind of climactic moment on health care, where was this sort of organized, you know, white house Republican Party capitol hill kind of effort to sort of focus the countrys energies behind it . It didnt happen. Sit tight. Ahead much more on this. The Republican Health care mess and what it says about the partys ability to govern. Next, though, a call for r5diccal transparency for a major conservative voice as the Trump White House again changes its tune about a Campaign Meeting with russians. Managing blood sugar is a series of smart choices. And when you replace one meal. Or snack a day with glucerna. Made with carbsteady. To help minimize blood sugar spikes. You can really feel it. Now with 30 less carbs and sugars. Glucerna. Mmmm. Mmmm. Mmmm. Ugh. Nothing spoils a moment like heartburn. Try new alkaseltzer ultra strength heartburn relief chews. Its fast, powerful relief with no chalky taste. [ sings high note ] ultra strength, new from alkaseltzer. Enjoy the relief. Hundreds of dollars on youmy car insurance. Saved me huh. I should take a closer look at geico. dog panting geico has a 97 Customer Satisfaction rating and fast and friendly claims service. Speaking of service . Oooo, just out. It was in. Out. In out. 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At the white house yesterday press Secretary Sean Spicer insisted the big focus of that meeting was a u. S. Law restricting russian adoptions. I will say that its quite often for people given information during the heat of a campaign to ask what that is. Thats what simply he did. The president s made it clear through his tweet, and there was nothing as far as we know that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for discussion about adoption and the magnitsky act. Add that to a long list of answers and a fact check and dont take my word for it. Donald trump jr. Released emails saying russians offered to provide the Trump Campaign with official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and be very useful to your father. That email goes on to say, it is part of russias and Government Support of mr. Trump. Donald trump jr. Responded with if its what you say it is, i love it. Especially later in the summer. How can the press secretary paid for by taxpayers stand at the podium and say it was a meeting about russian adoption . And the act that prohibit e eed restricted those. How . Recently we heard answer an from sean spicer frequency, i havent spoken to President Trump and dont know the answer. That answer probably would have been better than this answer that he gave, which is so contrary to some of the, you know, frankly proof we have in black and white print that, the email, statements don junior has made, the statements President Trump has made defending his son for taking this meeting. The white house is not helping itself trying to contradict all of the proof thats already out there that this meeting happened because don junior believed that there was going to be incriminating information presented at this meeting about Hillary Clinton. Love it. Love it. Its disrespectful not only to members of the press assembled in the room. Its disrespectful to the people they represent, the people that consume the news. To the people that the white house represents. Youre just saying things that arent true. Clearly somewhere in the white house this has become permissible to do this or they wouldnt do it. Its not all right and we should be calling it out. Its the news, the first thing they said, turned out not to be true. If youre a trump supporter conditioned by the president and his team you cant believe anything you hear on cnn or the quote unquote fake news, donald trump jr. Emails prove the press secretary wasnt telling the truth, talking about the meeting. Not us. Documentary evidence if you dont believe us. To the point, the wall street journal in a harshly worded editori editorial, saying they keep this trickling out. Deny meetings took place. Then theyre acknowledged. Different stories and move on again. In the wall street journal story, even if the ultimate truth is merely don junior is a political dunce who took a meeting that went nowhere the best case, the trumps made it appear as if they had something to hide. Created the passenge e ed the a conspiracy that don junior lacks ability to concoct. And now put on a roman legion. This is a conservative editorial page generally friendly to republican administrations. Clearly dont think much of don junior and his intellect. The president needs to document it, put it out, everything that was. And buy a newspaper owned by rupert murdoch, control on the editorial page side. This is a message from the white house to the wall street journal. We know about this meeting. Don junior put out emails last week. We know about the meeting because Jared Kushner amended a form for security clearance. And a worry hes not going to get a final security clearance because hes had to go back and do this. He says inadvertent, told it wasnt necessary to list these. As he goes through this, thats a giant question. Listen to democrats here saying if michael flynn, former National Security adviser was fired because he didnt tell the truth, why does Jared Kushner have a security clearance . If the flynn standard still holds, frankly theres a question why Jared Kushner is still in the white house, but certainly a more immediate question about whether its appropriate for him to have security clearance. If it were anyone but Jared Kushner, soninlaw of the president , he would be fired. But also clearly his security clearance revoked, and i think it should be. As more information rolls in from Jared Kushners activities, you just cannot make a logical case that he should keep his security clearance. Is that a legitimate question here . There are concerns inside the white house, as i said. But is it a legitimate question or democrats seeing an opportunity to raise an issue . Demmiocrats will find an opportunity to pounce this is one of them. Questions if you were a normal run of the mill Government Employee and repeatedly had to amend your forms for a security clearance. You probably wouldnt get it. I want to go back, that e, ough one. Things you said about sean spicer in the briefing. His answer is a symptom of a bigger problem. Thats a lack of discipline. Right . The way that white houses get through these scandals is by being incredibly disciplined about compartmentalizing information, having lawyers answer these questions, and methodically getting to the bottom of whatever the question is so they know what theyre putting out there is the truth. And i mean obviously we all know this isnt the most disciplined white house and thats coming back to root. Six months in, first month, figure it out. Second month, figure it out. Its the sixth month. Well see. Next, President Trump said it would be easy to repeal and rea place obamacare. 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This easytounderstand guide will answer some of your questions and help you find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan thats right for you. Yeah, and i can watch thee bgame with directv now. . Oh, sorry, most broadcast and sports channels arent included. And you can only stream on two devices at once. This is fun, were having fun. Yeah, we are. No, youre not jimmy. Dont let directv now limit your entertainment. Xfinity gives you more to stream to more screens. Live picture from capitol hill as we have more on todays breaking political news. The collapse of the Senate Republican obamacare replacement plan. At that podium republican senators meeting for lunch come out to explain to us how they plan to move forward on health care. A much bigger question for the Republican Party, too. Six months after taking control of the white house and both chambers of congress, can the gop rise to the challenge of governing . We have the president , so we can do things you can do things licketysplit . Been a long time since that happen happened. Ed president knocked the cover of the ball and explained to members how its important to unify. To work together. How we are advancing our principles and doing what we told the American People we would do. This is our chance and our moment. The American People said we elected a republican senate, Republican House and republican senate, we want to see some result. Want to see some results. I dont think anybody can dispute that. His the sixmonth mark friday. Obamacare will be the law of the land on friday. Tax reform is nowhere in the legislative process. They is Committee Hearings but different disagreements between the white house approach and speaker ryans approach. Infrastructure another big president s priority. Maybe not for other members of the Republican Party, certainly for President Trump, it is nowhere. Theres Big Questions whether hell get the money for his wall. Back to that. The trump agenda and republican agenda not always the same thing. Neither one of them big picture items moving forward in any way now as we watch this wait for more on what comes next with health care. Why . Let me put it this way. Yes, governings hard. Health care choices extraordinarily difficult but not a surprise to anyone involved Susan Collins and ted cruz think differently on health care. Passing legislation, get them in a room and figure it out. Republicans spent eight years raling against president obama, incredibly critical of him. Turns out at least on the health care front he was actually Republican Partys saving grace. Now that theres not a democratic president in the white house, that they have a republican president , they are squarely facing the challenges and realities of having to govern on an issue as complicated as health care. And i was struck last week talking to senator ted cruz when he basically acknowledged after coming out in support of the bill saying, yes, i acknowledge this is not a full repeal bill, and let me tell you, there is not the appetite, not the votes in my conference to do a full repeal. Thats a long away way from what weve been hearing from the Republican Party over the last seven or eight years, but they dont like the bill and that they, once they have the power will get rid of it. That was ted cruz. Surprised a lot of people. Being part of the negotiations. The longtime outsider being an inside player. Acknowledging, im not getting everything. Reighs approach. 80 what youre looking for is progress. A lot of questions about, why didnt they figure this out . Why waste the transition period, for example . Why wasnt the trump transition working op these negotiations then . Using the bully pulpit, traveling to key states, ask him to cast a tough vote. Blame me. Not him. Why didnt that happen . Goes to trump. A lack of leadership leading the party in a specific direction. That you articulate and hammer foam day after day. You have weeks dedicated to something but dont have sort of a, a key message, and a way to push that with press conferences. Hes had one solo press conference in his entire time. No discipline. And that is part of the problem. Initially, remember a couple weeks ago, every time anyone asked about russia in the briefing room, they were told, go talk to the lawyers. Youve seen that vary now. Press secretary answering questions. Great. Not saying dont answer questions, but you dont have the kind of discipline seen in other administrations be it sticking to the weeks or staying on message. I think its deeper than just the message. Right . You have a Republican Party and, in congress and a republican now in the white house who both fundamentally won office. Many of them in congress and the president , won office not appealing to people on the basis of im going to come to washington and forge compromise and sort of really they appealed to peoples base like passions about things, and were told to come to washington and blow the place up and stick to their principles. Thats not a kind of mandate for compromise when you get here. I glee compleagree and donal more of a dealmaker, right of center but not a lot of republicans on capitol hill think he doesnt understand that to do the medicaid stuff, lose Susan Collins. Leave some regulations in place, say i want people to be able to keep preexisting protections and keep on Parents Health care until 26, he didnt understand when he promised in 2016 how complicated the republican negotiationss in a word, made a mistake saying this would be easy. Youre going to have such Great Health Care at a tiny fraction of the cost, and its going to be so easy. We have come up with a solution thats really, really, i think, very good. Now, i have to tell you, its an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated. I know were all going to make a deal on health care. Such an easy one. No doubt thats going to happen quickly. The will, actually. I think its going to happen. Because weve all been promises, democrat, republican, all been promising that to the American People. See where this goes. You see festering, what we saw throughout the obama administration, republican civil war, ideological tugofwar for the leadership on policy issues, philosophical ways. Rich lowry writing in the national review, its closer to the end. End of the beginning, witnessing one of the greatest political whiffs of our time. One of many. Look whether its conservative talk radio, conservative media sites. Some people saying Mitch Mcconnell has to go. Frustration at President Trump. I thought they were going to govern . Also a failure to reach out. This amazing dealmaker, as he fashioned himself during the campaign. Not only has he not been able to forge deals with democrats, which, theyve got incentive not to deal with the president , but he hasnt helped himself as all. He cant forge deals with his own party. A surprise to the white house staff as well to the president. Part is i think his leadership style, as a businessman, sort of articulate something broad and then get out of the way and let people do that. That doesnt work so well in washington. Where you need to be involved and engaged, and moving people on the hill. But to the political point, its, the midterms coming up. Republicans now are going to be squeezed on both sides. I mean, democrats are very mobilized now, and the Republican Base is going to be angry if theres not something done on health care. To that point, from late june, nbc wall street journal poll. What are your absolute priorities . Absolute priorities, the question for republican voters, obamacare 76 . Supreme court 82 , fewer regulations 64, tough on isis, 81 . Repealing obamacare ranks high for republican voters. And in the lunch, i bet run long today. One of the questions for republicans not only what do we do about health care but what do we tell our voters . John, your point earlier about the president basically lacking ideological convictions when it comes to health care is so, so key. This is why we have seen him sort of all overthe place, frankly, on the issue of health care. Whether its saying im going to have a plan that offers Insurance Coverage for everybody. Not what republicans have been saying. Seeing that the house bill passed, letting that sink in and saying actually that bill sound mean to me. Hes been all over the place and not really on message in the way that the Republican Party has been. Thats going to make this a lot more difficult for the republicans in congress to navigate because they dont have a president leading the way sort of and guiding them on exactly what he would like to see. That lack of trust will spill o nover now. Not only the next health care but tax reform. Ahead, the next six months of the Trump Administration. I am honored to appear before you today as President Trumps nominee to serve as the United States ambassador to the holy sea. Familiar face there. Callista gingrich, wife of the former speaker Newt Gingrich on capitol hill for her confirmation hearing. Choice to the ambassador to the vatican, to the holy sea. Progress. A lot of talk about the administration filling top jobs. Take a look as we approach the sixmonth mark. The president is well behind other president s and running slow. 210 jobs requires Senate Confirmation. 49 Senate Confirm so far. How does that compare . Bring this up and see. This is the obama administration. Look. Numbers much greater than the Trump Administration. See confirmations. Obama here. Trump, way down here. Not just a democratic administration. George w. Bush. Nominations here. Confirmations here. A little behind obama but well ahead of President Trump. When you look at this, this president has been slow to nominate people and, yes, once he nominates them, democrats are using stalling tactics to slow it down. Another way to look at it. Bring in all of the recent president s. Trump, obama, george w. , george h. W. , see the numbers. Trump behind all other president s in pace of the nomination. Well behind those in confirmations. Some withdrawn or failed. Average day . Look here. Yes the president has a point at 45 days for the takes the confirmation. The president has a point that democrats are using their stalling tactics once he sends a name up to capitol hill. But thats only part of the problem. Only part only part of the problem. Hes, yes, democrats are using every tactic they have. Why has the administration been so slow to name people to basic jobs and very important jobs in the government . Look, i think youve got to give the president and the white house a little credit here in that just from my inbox youve seen the pace of the nominations pick up. A lot of that, a lot of what thats right. A lot of what you see in that chart is the result of terrible record and terrible delays in producing nominees at the beginning of the administration. The first few months. We saw that in the transition, chaotic, the first couple months terrible. That said, the fact is theyre behind, and the democrats have pounced and have decided that theyre going to take every opportunity to make sure that every nominee that the president does send up takes a very long time. Why should they do that . Because the truth is that the longer that the Trump Administration doesnt have its people in all of these different agencies at these sort of highlevel political positions, the longer it takes to implement the trump agenda. Right . Thats what stalls as a result of not having his people there. Its that the people who are in the career, the Career Civil Service folks, theyre chugging along with president obamas, you know, the last eight years. Ive talked to people in the government, and in these little agencies that have spent eight years doing it one way and until somebodys in place to tell them to do it a different way theyre chucking along. Because the assistant secretary, Deputy Assistant secretary, may not sound like fancy titles at hole and dont want them filled. Too much waste in government. Those are the people who go to career people, no, no. New sheriff in town. We need to do things differently. Another problem, a lot of the republican establishment isnt really like trump going in. Their a horse with a different guy. Spoke out against trump. Didnt think he would win. Because of that you have internal opposition at the white house to some of these folks that spoke up publicly against the president. Its harder to fill a position where i would say in a normal republican administration, people already waiting. Done their time. Maybe were in the bush administration, and they would come into that spot naturally. Some of these positions, particularly when you talk about the National Security realm, there isnt the natural fit that you would have seen in some other harder to block the people who have established government resumes, too. You can call out the other part for their politics when they have established roots. And recruitment issues. To this trump team, i talked to people who had been offered jobs and decided not to take them because of the chaos that exists. The number of lawyers that people have to hire when theyre in this white house and so i think there is an issue, too of taking a job not which is different from a judgeship or something a lifelong appointment, where youre not beholden to this particular administration. And great line. Jump in. A great line from carl from the New York Times today. Republicans calculate at the current rate, 11 years, 4 months to fill all possible Trump Administration jobs considering each nominee. 11 years, 4 months. Two terms. Get that that. Important to note that these jobs are always important for any administration and particularly important when an administration is struggling to have legislative victories. Everything is solved in congress now. Its not a surprise. You talked about the trump agenda and administrations ability to execute the trump agenda. Its not an accident someone like tom price was one of the first people to be stated at the hhs. Many actions actually that price can take absent of a bill coming out of congress that teal deals with health care. Back up to capitol hill when we come back. Republican senators, a big lunch and talked to you at the top of the show about the collapse of the obamacare replacement plan. Plan b. Or c. , or is it d. . Thats in trouble, too. Then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Ready to of your back pain . New icyhot lidocaine patch. Desensitizes aggravated nerves with the max strength lidocaine available. New icyhot lidocaine patch. Welcome back pop standing by for a take from the president at a lunch with the would us where hes made Important News about the republican Health Care Debate. Well get to that in a moment as we take feeds, and hear from the president preempt him a little. How disappointed the Senate Obamacare after the collapse and goes on to say were not going it own it. Meaning republicans wont own the failure. Im not going to own it. Hear it directly from the president in a moment. This is the president of the United States, republicans also control the senate and the house. Can he magically not own things that happen in i understand it was a democrat passed law. Obamacare. But they run the government. Are they not responsible for people who will Lose Health Insurance or having trouble in the obamacare market . Hard to see how they blame democrats for this one. And we talked during the break. Lets listen. Mr. President are you angry at the republicans who did not pass a Health Care Bill . Disappointed. Thank you. Very disappointed. I dont think its dead but im certainly dit appointed. For seven years ive been hearing replea and replace from congress, hearing it loud and strong and we finally get a chance to repeal and replace they dont take advantage of it. Thats disappointing. I would say im disappointed in what took place. It will go on and well whip. Were going to win on taxes. Were going to win on infrastructure and lots of other things that were doing. Weve won and are winning the war as you know on the border. Were very much decimating isis. You can see that. You see that better than anybody sees it. The soldiers that are with us today. Weve had a lot of victories but havent had a victory in health care. Were disappointed. I am very disappointed, because, again, even as a civilian for seven years ive been hearing about health care. And ive been hearing about repeal and replace. And obamacare is a total disaster. Some states had over 200 increase. 200 increase in their premiums. And theyre deductibles are through the roof. Its an absolute disaster. And i think youll also agree that ive been saying for a long time, let obamacare fail, and then everybodys going to have to come together and fix it. And come up with a new plan and a plan thats really good for the people with much lower premiums, much lower costs and much better protection. Ive been saying that. Mike, i think youll agree for a long time. Let obamacare fail. It will be a lot easier, and i think were probably in that position where well just let obamacare fail. Were not going to own it. Im not going to own it. I can tell you the republicans are not going to own itswell let obamacare fail and then democrats will come to us and say, how do e we fix it . Or come up with a new plan . Well see what happens. Theres other things going on right now as we speak. But i am disappointed, because for so many years ive been hearing repeal and replace. Im sitting in the oval office right next door, pen in hand, waiting to sign something. And ill be waiting. And eventually were going to get something done and its going to be very good, but obamacares a big failure. And it has to be changed. We have to go to a plan that works. We have to go to a much less expensive plan in terms of premiums. And something will happen and it will be have good. May not be as quick as wed hoped but its going to happen. Okay . [ inaudible ]. Well, they were not disloyal. They had their own reasons. Very surprised when the two folks came out last night because we thought they were in fairly good shape, but they did. And everybody has their own reason. But if you really think about it, you look at it and we have 52 people. We had no democrat support. Which is really, you know, something that should be said. We should have had democrat vote, a great plan for a lot of people. We had no democrat support. We are 52 people. We had 4 nos. Now, we might have had another one in there. Essentially the vote pretty close to, if you look at it, 484. Thats a pretty impressive vote, by any standard. And yet you have a vote of 484 or Something Like that, and you need more. Thats pretty tough. So the way i look at it is, in 18 were going to have to get more people elected. We have to go out and we have to get more people elected that are republican. And we have to probably pull in those people, those few people that voted against it. I dont know. Theyre going to have to explain why they did and im sure have very fine reasons but we have to get more republicans elected, because we have to get it done. Got it passed in the house. Would have gotten it very much cant use his head as a stand . Right . Dont want that to happen. Youre messing with the wrong guy here. So we want we want i think were going to do very well, actually in 18. I would be not surprised if something were done long before then, but in any event, because the margin is so small, the majority margin is so small we have to go out and get more republicans elected in 18 and ill be working very hard for that to happen. Okay . It would be nice to have democrat support but really theyre obstructionists. They have no ideas. They have no thought process, all they want to do is obstruct government and obstruct, period. And in this case, think of it. So many good things we didnt get one vote and their plan has failed. By the way, obamacare isnt failing. Its failed. Its gone. So i think somethings going to happen. Well find out. Stay tuned. Thank you all very much. No. Thank you. Thank you. All right. There was the president of the United States, President Trump, speaking about his failed Health Care Bill. A crushing setback for the president of the United States, and for the republicans. Failure to repeal and replace obamacare. The Affordable Care act in the u. S. Senate. Now theyre going back to another strategy. Theyre various strategies. The president putting forward those right now. Im wolf blitzer in washington. We want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world. Our Congressional Correspondent Phil Mattingly is standing by up on capitol hill. So, phil, whats next for the repeal and replacement of obamacare . Because it looks like a huge, huge failure for the republicans right now. Reporter yeah. And the latest news, wolf, theres forehuge, huge failure with a third no vote. The new plan, the 3. 0 version of how to repeal, move on from the Affordable Care act appears to be dead. Lisa murkowski, senator from alaska a few minutes ago se would oppose moving on to consider the bill and join Susan Collins from maine a firm no against the procedural motion and likely Shelley Moore capito, only vote to proceed if a clear replacement option was in the legislative process going forward. Track back to last night. We got to this point, repeal and replace imploded. Two senators coming out senator Mitch Mcconnell didnt have the votes. Changing strategy, telling members in the last congress you voted for a repealonly bill. Vast majority of conference minus Susan Collins did. Were going to have a vote on that. That has now been shortcircuited by those three no votes already come out publicly. Wolf, the reality here is this secondary plan, this repealonly effort was the hail mary essentially put this up. Only option left and at this point, that appears to have collapsed. What the path forward . Well, in terms of the u. S. Senate, doesnt appear they have one, wolf. To be precise. If they succeeded to getting a vote to simply repeal, forget the replacement for now. Simply repeal, only a partial repealment of the Affordable Care act, obamacare, because a lot of it would have stayed in place, because you need 60 votes to repeal certain regulations as opposed to other aspects of the Affordable Care act. Explain that to viewers. Reporter exactly right. Worth noting. Again, most senators et voed on this in the last congress. Most republican senators. President obama vetoed the bill. A lot of conservatives, including President Trump of late calling to just do the repealonly bill. This is not a repealall bill. Because of the reconciliation and budget process the senate using to pass something with just a simple majority only 51 votes as opposed to 60, there are limits to what they can actually pass. Essentially has to deal with revenue or taxes. And because of that, what this would essentially do, this repealonly bill, repeal the insurance subsidies, repeal